Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

India-Pakistan

Angry citizens restore power after storming grid station in Peshawar

2024-05-26

[GEO.TV] Enraged citizens of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa capital city Saturday restored electricity by storming into the Hazar khawani grid station, after incessant loadshedding led to protests in the midst of scorching weather.

Area's elders and residents entered the grid station after protesting outside its gate with heavy police deployment to tackle any potential law and order situation.

The protest was led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Fazal Elahi who said the elders of the area will restore power at the grid station.

Link

Afghanistan

Biden funneled $1.3 million to the Taliban for Afghan reconstruction

2024-05-02

[Free Beacon] The Biden administration funneled nearly $1.3 million to the Taliban as part of reconstruction projects in Afghanistan that are being administered by the United States, according to a government oversight group.

Since 2021, when the Biden administration conducted its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has allocated millions to weapons removal projects. As part of these activities, the U.S. government and its partners inside Afghanistan "have paid Taliban entities nearly $1.3 million in taxes, including $138,000 this quarter," according to an audit by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which monitors America's $17 billion post-withdrawal investment in the country.

Another $5 million in U.S. funds remain available for future weapons removal projects, which will likely have to be conducted with the Taliban's blessing. The United States' payments to the Taliban—which seized power during the Biden administration's evacuation—come amid warnings that Afghanistan "is once again becoming a terrorist haven," according to SIGAR. The oversight group has repeatedly warned that billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars are potentially being diverted to the Taliban and that this money cannot be properly tracked because the Biden administration is stonewalling investigations.

With billions in taxpayer dollars still flowing into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, terror attacks from inside the country are on the rise. The Taliban government "remain[s] tolerant of some terror groups, such as al Qaeda and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan," according to SIGAR. Other militant groups, including ISIS, are also expanding their operations in Afghanistan and maintain the ability to launch attacks on U.S. and Western interests abroad.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Between ISIS and Ukraine. What does the handwriting of the terrorist attack at Crocus say?

2024-03-26

Direct Translaion via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Semenov

Long. Lots of useful information about ISIS at the bottom.

[REGNUM] The terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS), took responsibility for the terrible terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall concert hall near Moscow. But this only adds questions about the true organizers of the tragedy.

The first message on behalf of Amaq, the main information resource of ISIS, released on March 22, was duplicated on several ISIS-related information platforms, for example, on the ISIS channel “Nashir News” and the pro-ISIS channel “Ilam”, as was also done during other terrorist attacks. On March 23, Amaq published a more detailed statement from ISIS with details of the terrorist attack and with a photo of its perpetrators in front of the organization’s flag.

On the same day, but a little later, there was an official statement from the “press service” of ISIS, which was distributed through channels associated with this terrorist organization. And finally, also on March 23, an Amaq News video appeared with horrifying scenes of the terrorists' actions, filmed by themselves, entitled "Amaq Agency Exclusive Footage."

The fact that the faces of the terrorists in the photos and videos were “blurred” should not be embarrassing and does not indicate the fake nature of these frames. For example, during the terrorist attack in Iranian Kerman, the statement of the terrorists against the backdrop of the ISIS flag was published with “blurred” faces. This is a common but not required practice.

At the same time, there are doubts that the terrorists who carried out the massacre of our fellow citizens had deep ideological ties with ISIS and were recruited directly by emissaries of this group.

The investigation will put a final point on this, but in any case, the involvement of ISIS in this terrorist attack cannot in any way exclude the possibility that, in fact, behind the attack on Crocus City were the intelligence services of states hostile to Russia, primarily the Kiev regime, which took advantage of the “flag” » ISIS and the willingness of these terrorists to chalk up the inhumane act to their own account.

For the “caliphate,” as ISIS calls itself, the statement that its “soldiers” carried out a terrorist attack is, first and foremost, an indicator of the viability of the project.

True.

Therefore, in the current conditions, “ISIS” members are not particularly picky about the ideology of the perpetrators, as well as how correctly they understand the dogmatic and other guidelines of this group.

We’ve noticed.

For them, the main thing is to maintain the myth that the “caliphate project” is alive, as is its slogan “to survive and expand.” In this case, we are talking about expanding the group’s activity to those territories where it has not yet declared itself with the bloodiest terrorist attacks, as in the Russian Federation.

On the other hand, for Kyiv, using the ISIS brand is a good way to evade responsibility, but at the same time achieve the same goals as if this terrorist attack was carried out by militants whose affiliation with the Zelensky regime is unconditional.

Russa desperately wants to hang tuis round Kiev’s neck…

It is significant that this terrorist action clearly fits into the outline of a terrorist attack on the Russian Federation against the backdrop of the inability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to achieve success in the zone of the Northern Military District.

Hence the DRG attacks on the Belgorod and Kursk regions, the constant shelling of our cities,

…which Russia started…

kamikaze drone strikes on civilian vehicles and even individual citizens, and, finally, the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall as the apogee of this terrorist offensive.

According to the organizers, the offensive should sow distrust of the population in the authorities, highlight all the most pressing problems (migration, interfaith and interethnic relations), turning cracks in them into fault lines, make Russians realize that now the war concerns each of them, and wherever they are were located from Belgorod to Vladivostok, they cannot feel safe. And even where drones and MLRS missiles cannot reach, terrorists can overtake them.

In this case, for Kyiv it does not matter what brand or name these terrorists have - RDK, ISIS or anything else. The main thing is to achieve your desired goals. Make Russian citizens doubt their choice, which they made on March 15–17, 2024.

As for the possibility of organizing such terrorist attacks, for which ISIS will ultimately take responsibility, a hypothetical situation may look like this: a certain group, attracted through combined recruitment methods, that is, material interest, Russophobia and radical religious attitudes, is being trained and receives everything it needs from the intelligence services of third countries.

Then, in agreement with the same special services, which can act as some kind of “preachers,” they make a statement to ISIS, indicating that they are preparing an attack and that they swear an oath to ISIS, thus receiving the status of “soldiers of the caliphate.” This is in effect for notice.

No emissaries will come and check how sincere these (in)people are in their belief in the ideology of ISIS and share its guidelines; no one will demand a preliminary plan of operation either. This can be done after the fact, and it is even possible that the future terrorist should first record the oath (bayat) of ISIS, send or post the recording in a safe place, without sending directly to the real, deeply secret structures of the terrorist organization, with which he simply does not have communication channels.

All this makes it easier for interested third parties to use the ISIS flag.

It is also noteworthy that the ISIS statement includes the definition of “soldiers of the caliphate”, that is, we are talking about people previously unknown to these terrorists who declared an oath and carried out a terrorist attack on their behalf, without being sent to a particular country by the “central command” of ISIS and the Amniyat security service.

If the terrorist attack is planned directly by Amniyat and proven militants, then the terrorists are no longer declared “soldiers of the caliphate,” but “martyr brothers,” and from the wording itself one can conclude that there is no provision for saving their lives after the terrorist attack.

“INGHIMASI” WITHOUT “ISTISHKHADIYEV”
Formally, ISIS fighters on the battlefield (including during sabotage or terrorist attacks) can be divided into three types, which, in turn, are divided into subtypes: this is the “infantry” itself with light small arms, RPGs and ATGMs; “Istishhadi” - suicide bombers to break through the enemy’s defenses and cause damage to his manpower, who are sent by Amniyat to carry out terrorist attacks; "ingimasi" - "commandos" or "stormtroopers", usually trained fighters for operations and actions in difficult areas, who can also wear suicide "belts", but detonate them only when necessary.

For example, in issue No. 11 of the ISIS magazine “Rumiyah”, the combined terrorist attacks in Tehran are described as follows: the first group of “Istishhadis” blew themselves up at the Khomeini mausoleum, the second group of “Inghimasis” of three people attacked the parliament building.

Accordingly, the terrorists from Crocus City were also called “ingimasi”, despite the fact that among them there were no “istishkhadis”, who are usually used in the preparation of terrorist attacks by Amniyat.

Therefore, now, during the decline of ISIS, the procedure for declaring a “soldier of the caliphate” has become even more simplified. And it allows virtually anyone to use the “ISIS brand.” Especially if we are not talking about suicide attacks, where ideological pumping is required, but about the actions of the “Ingimasyev”.

At the same time, it is obvious that the Crocus terrorists themselves did not have the capabilities to prepare such a terrorist attack, but were most likely selected for the implementation of a specific plan. Weapons caches were organized, waste routes were worked out, and so on. All that ISIS in Russia could hardly organize, but that the intelligence services and local agents of third countries could provide in the interests of terrorists acting on behalf of ISIS.

Again, the Islamic rhetoric appearing as if specifically on the video recording of the terrorist attack should convince these individuals of their “sincere” adherence to the ISIS ideology. Probably, the customers themselves could have asked them for this, which was included in the “price” for ruined human lives.

At the moment, there is no convincing evidence of the involvement of those arrested in Salafi or radical Islamist circles, just as there are no signs of their stable affiliation with the corresponding subculture.

The terrorist attack was not carried out at all in the style of the relevant terrorist organizations.

When attacking such a significant object with an entire armed group, where security forces and police were supposed to arrive, ISIS, obviously, in its own planning of this operation, would be extremely interested in the “ingimasi” eventually blowing up their “suicide belts” when entering the battle.

Those cases when ISIS terrorists left the scene of a terrorist attack are noticeably different from the events at Crocus in terms of the scale of preparation and planning and are more likely to be of a spontaneous nature, like in January 2024 in Istanbul.

"VELAYAT KHORASAN"
In this context, it should also be noted that the statements of ISIS themselves did not say anything that their cell “Islamic State - Velayat Khorasan” (ISIS-K) was behind the terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation.

It is generally believed that this is an Afghan-Pakistani affiliate of ISIS. And the fact that the terrorist attack was carried out by Tajiks should have convinced everyone that ISIS-X was behind it. Let us recall that the terrorist attacks in Iranian Kerman on behalf of ISIS-X were carried out by people from Tajikistan, as was the January terrorist attack in Istanbul.

ISIS-X, dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, is trying to become the most active cell of ISIS along with the group’s African branches and spread its terrorist activity to almost all of Eurasia.

Actually, ISIS-X, dominated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, is trying to become the most active cell of ISIS along with the group’s African branches and spread its terrorist activity to almost all of Eurasia.

Initially, ISIS-X had Pakistani roots, in the sense that its activities spread to Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Its existence should be counted from September 2014.

Then a “delegation” of IS arrived in the Pakistani province of Waziristan from Syria and Iraq and held negotiations with some representatives of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an independent Pakistani jihadist structure fighting Islamabad and not associated with the Afghan Taliban, although consonant in the name. Among the leaders of this group were those who moved away from the traditional Hanafi madhhab for Pashtuns and began to profess Arabian Salafism.

This caused a split in the TTP, and some of its Salafi field commanders tried to impose their views as the only true ones for the entire organization, which, however, did not meet with understanding among the majority of militants and Tehrik leaders. This is what ISIS tried to take advantage of.

As a result of negotiations with IS emissaries, on October 15, 2015, Hafiz Said Khan, one of its leaders, officially left the TTP, along with seven other top-level “schismatics,” including the “official” TTP representative Shahidullah Shahid ; TTP district chief Khyber Gul Zaman Fateh ; TTP Chief Mufti in Peshawar Hassan Swati ; Kurram District Chief Hafiz Dawlat Khan ; TTP commander in Waziristan Abdul Bahar Mehsud and others.

They created a new group called Tehreek-e-Khilafat Pakistan (TCP), pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

ISIS-X was proclaimed on January 11, 2015 and became the successor to the TKP, and Said Khan became its first leader.

The group was unable to gain a foothold in Pakistan due to the rather effective actions of local security forces and the conflict with the TTP and tried to transfer its activity to Afghanistan, where by June 2015 it occupied some areas in the Nananghar province, which is still one of the centers of ISIS activity.

After the Americans eliminated Hafiz Said Khan in 2016 and his successor Abdul Hasib Logari in 2017, ISIS-X actually split into two independent factions, as numerous people from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and other representatives of the Central Asian republics refused to recognize the new leadership ISIS-X is led by Pashtuns who came from Afghanistan.

Thus, two independent groups began to operate under the brand “Islamic State Vilayat Khorasan” in 2017. One - consisting of natives of the Central Asian republics and local Tajiks and Uzbeks who joined them, and the other - of Pakistani Pashtuns and Afghan Salafis from the provinces of Kunar and Nuristan.

This division probably continues to this day, but with a significant dominance of Uzbeks and Tajiks.

At the same time, ISIS-X, having invaded Afghanistan, entered into confrontation not only with government troops and the international contingent, but also with the Taliban, who were able to inflict a number of sensitive defeats on ISIS. For example, they defeated the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which decided to join ISIS-X.

Subsequently, the main burden of countering ISIS in Afghanistan also fell on the Taliban, while government troops, on the contrary, often saved the “ISIS” from complete destruction. As this, for example, happened during the Battle of Darzab in July 2018, where the main forces of ISIS-X were concentrated in Afghanistan at that time.

The Taliban practically destroyed this group of 700 militants (of which 128 were captured). There were 200 survivors who turned to the Afghan pro-American government for help. It provided them with a corridor to retreat to territories controlled by government forces, so as not to be completely destroyed by the Taliba. There, the remnants of this group surrendered to the Afghan authorities.

Currently, despite terrorist attacks, ISIS-X in Afghanistan is significantly weaker than in 2017–2018. The group can carry out individual acts of intimidation, but is unable to ensure sustainable territorial control over entire regions.

Therefore, it is likely that the Taliban will be able to restrain the activity of ISIS-X and prevent any cities and regions from falling under its control, but it is unlikely that in the foreseeable future they will be able to completely eliminate all cells of this terrorist organization in Afghanistan.

In turn, ISIS-X seeks to demonstrate its activity through various terrorist attacks, thereby compensating for its own failures in Afghanistan, and at the same time, it is probably ready to provide “its flag” to anyone who will bring “black resonance” to the group.

Link

Afghanistan

Pakistan Bombs Afghanistan, Claiming Taliban Is ‘Actively Patronizing' Terror Across Border

2024-03-20

[Breitbart] The government of Pakistan confirmed the execution of “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations” within Afghanistan on Monday, outraging the Taliban, which claimed to have responded by bombing Pakistani military bases “with heavy weapons.”

The relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan has been tense since the terrorists seized Kabul in August 2021, the direct result of leftist American President Joe Biden’s decision to extend the already two-decade-old war in Afghanistan beyond the May 2021 deadline set by predecessor former President Donald Trump. A report published in February 2023 found that Biden left an estimated $7.2 billion in military equipment in Afghanistan, now believed to be under the control of Taliban terrorists and their allies.

Islamabad has blamed the Biden administration’s poorly executed extension of the war and the subsequent abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops for a “recent resurgence in terrorism” on the Pakistani border. Evidence indicates that the weapons Biden abandoned in Afghanistan have fallen in the hands of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistani Taliban, which is a separate entity from the Afghan Taliban (the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”) but enjoyed an alliance with the Kabul-based terror organization.

Pakistan has increased its military operations against the TTP and other jihadist elements on the Pakistani-Afghan border, as well as launched a massive campaign to deport nearly 2 million Afghans present in the country illegally. On Monday, the Pakistani Foreign Office confirmed the execution of airstrikes on Afghan soil allegedly targeting the Hafix Gul Bahadur Group, which it claimed was affiliated with the TTP.

The statement from the Foreign Office angrily condemned the Taliban for allowing a threat to Pakistan’s national security to persist on the soil it claims to control. Pakistani officials claimed that they had successfully neutralized a TTP terrorist named Abdullah Shah, but a man claiming to be Shah published a video shortly after the attacks declaring himself alive and active in jihad.

“Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns to the interim Afghan government [the Taliban] over the presence of terror outfits, including TTP, inside Afghanistan,” the Office statement read, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. “These terrorists pose a grave threat to Pakistan’s security and have consistently used Afghan territory to launch terror attacks inside Pakistani territory.”

“Pakistan has great respect for the people of Afghanistan. However, certain elements among those in power in Afghanistan are actively patronising TTP and using them as a proxy against Pakistan,” the Foreign Office statement continued. “Such an approach against a brotherly country, which stood with the people of Afghanistan through thick and thin, manifests shortsightedness. It ignores the support extended by Pakistan to the people of Afghanistan over the last several decades.”

The Taliban’s top spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed that the Pakistani military had encroached into Afghan territory in a statement published to his Twitter account on Monday. Mujahid claimed that Pakistan “bombed the houses of civilians, as a result, 6 people including 3 women and 3 children were martyred and a house destroyed in Paktika, as well as, two women were martyred due to the collapse of a house in Khost province.”

Mujahid’s statement went on to threaten attacks on Pakistan.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns these attacks and calls this reckless action a violation of Afghanistan’s territory,” the spokesman declared. “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which has a long experience of freedom struggle against the superpowers of the world, does not allow anyone to invade its territory.”

“Pakistan should not blame Afghanistan for the lack of control, incompetence and problems in its own territory. Such incidents can have very bad consequences which will be out Pakistan’s control,” Mujahid added.

Mujahid also claimed that the terrorist Pakistan alleged was the target of the operations, Abdullah Shah, “is in Pakistan.”

Later on Monday, the Taliban “ministry of defense” claimed that it had bombed Pakistani military targets within Pakistan.

“In response to that aggression, the border forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan targeted military bases of Pakistan’s army across the artificial Durand Line with heavy weapons,” Taliban officials announced. Reports at press time have not offered any details on the scope of the damage from the Taliban attacks.

The Afghan broadcaster Tolo News reported on Monday that “a military confrontation between the Islamic Emirate and Pakistani soldiers started this morning (Monday) at seven and is ongoing, according to sources.”

Pakistan announced the mass deportation of 1.73 million Afghans in the country illegally in October, a move the Taliban angrily denounced as “unacceptable.”

Link

India-Pakistan

Imran Khan was ousted on Gen Bajwa's directives: Fazlur Rehman

2024-02-16

[GEO.TV] Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman said Thursday that the no-confidence motion that ousted former prime minister Imran Khan was tabled on the directives of ex-army chief General (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

In an interview on a private news channel, Fazl, who was the chief of the multi-party alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) responsible for removing Khan, said: “I was personally against the no-confidence move [...] but if I had said no despite insistence of other parties, then an impression would’ve been given that I ‘saved’ the PTI founder.”

The PDM removed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in April 2022 and led by Shehbaz Sharif, the multi-party alliance ruled the country for 16 months before handing over the reins to the caretaker set-up.

At first, Khan insisted that the US had him removed — a claim that the Joe Biden administration vehemently rejected. However, the ex-prime minister later shifted the blame to Gen Bajwa.

In an interview in February last year, Khan, citing an apparent conversation of the retired general with a journalist, said General Bajwa had “accepted and clarified that he was behind our government's ouster”.

After he became the first prime minister to be ousted via a no-trust motion, Khan continued a tirade against the establishment; however, politicians also said that the ex-army chief was involved in the PTI’s ouster.

Fazl, during the interview, said: “While the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was running the movement for a no-confidence motion, Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid told me that I could do whatever I wanted, but within the system.”

The JUI-F chief said Hamid told him that he could not “do anything outside the system” — meaning that every move should be made inside the parliament, not on the streets.

“But I rejected his directions,” he said, but noted that later on, the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and others left the PTI-led government.

“When they said that [the anti-PTI] is now in majority, I had to agree with them otherwise it would’ve been said that I helped save Imran Khan,” the JUI-F chief, who has rejected February 8 election results, said.

GOVERNMENT FORMATION
The February 8 did not return a clear majority for anyone, but independent candidates backed by Khan won 92 out of 264 seats, making them the largest group, followed by PML-N (79) and the PPP (54).

However, every party, even the PML-N which is seemingly about to form the next government, is unhappy with the election results.

For his party, Fazl has decided to join the parliament, but not become part of the government. “The decisions will not be made in the parliament anymore, they will be made on the streets.”

He noted that apparently, “rigging in elections” benefited the PML-N and there’s a rumour that Nawaz was not winning the Lahore seat.

Fazl said that PML-N’s prime minister candidate Shehbaz had paid him a visit to speak about government formation, but he rejected the idea and instead called on the Nawaz-led party to join him in the opposition.

“But Shehbaz left without responding to my offer [...] for me, the parliament has lost its credibility. If the establishment this that the elections were fair, then the May 9 narrative has been buried.”

Link

India-Pakistan

Why Nawaz Sharif failed to win Pakistan election despite tacit army support

2024-02-13

[Al Jazeera] When Nawaz Sharif, the three-time former prime minister, emerged on the balcony of his party’s headquarters in Lahore on Friday night, fireworks went off as he was given a rousing welcome by the crowd of nearly 1,500 people.

Sharif started out with what has now become the staple of his public addresses, asking the crowd of his Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) supporters, “Do you love me?”. The response, “We love you!”, echoed among his adoring audience.

Yet, more than three days after Pakistan voted in general elections, there is little evidence that the sentiment of Sharif’s core supporters is shared by the wider public in the nation of 241 million people that stunned analysts in their voting patterns on February 8.
[insert definition of insanity here]
For weeks before the elections, the PMLN was viewed by experts as the favourite to secure a clear victory that would give the 74-year-old political veteran another chance to rule Pakistan. Once targeted by Pakistan’s military establishment, Sharif appeared to have won the favour of the generals for the 2024 vote.

So confident were Sharif and the PMLN of their win that they had scheduled a victory speech from their leader for Thursday night, barely hours after polls closed. Then, the results started coming in, and the bubble was burst.

“As the voting patterns emerged, it shocked and surprised the party, forcing a rethink which is why they were in complete silent mode for nearly 12 hours,” said Majid Nizami, a political analyst, and a specialist on elections.

When Sharif finally addressed supporters on Friday, he claimed victory, but acknowledged that his party had failed to secure a simple majority and so would need coalition partners to form a government.

“This was not the result the party was expecting. They thought they would achieve more than 85 percent of seats from Punjab province, but initial trends showed they were barely getting 50 percent of seats,” Lahore-based Nizami told Al Jazeera.

Almost all of the remaining seats in Punjab, the bastion of Sharif’s PMLN, went to candidates backed by former PM Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) — a party that experts believed had been decimated by targeted political and legal attacks in recent months.

WHAT WENT WRONG?
As the dust settles on the election results, the PMLN has emerged with 75 seats in the national assembly, trailing PTI-backed independent candidates by 20 seats.

The PTI alleges widespread manipulation and tampering, insisting that it has been denied a far larger majority and that their mandate has been “stolen” to benefit Sharif and his PMLN.

So, what happened to the PMLN, a party that, as late as early 2022, was leading opinion polls in popularity over PTI and was considered the strongest party in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and electorally important province?

For Lahore-based political analyst and editor Badar Alam, the roots of PMLN’s disappointing performance in the polls can be traced back to April 2022 when Imran Khan, the PTI chief, and then-prime minister were ousted through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.

At the time, Sharif was in self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom, after a series of corruption-related convictions. His party allied with the country’s other traditional political force, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and others under what was called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), to topple Khan’s government.

They succeeded. But, said Alam, “once Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz’s younger brother, took over as prime minister, his attention went towards removing all the cases and convictions against his elder brother.”

These are cases that have haunted the Sharif brothers for three decades. The elder Sharif, who ruled the country twice in the 1990s, has been dogged by corruption allegations since then. In 1999, he was ousted in a military coup. His third term in power, after the PMLN won the 2013 elections, was marked by intensifying rivalry with Khan, who eventually won the 2018 election, backed at the time by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment that has ruled the country directly for more than three decades and has influenced politics from behind the scenes for much of the rest of the country’s existence.

Yet, since relations between Khan and the military soured, and he was ousted in 2022 — with the military now seemingly backing the PDM government — Pakistan has been through torrid political, economic and security crises.

Salman Ghani, a political analyst who has been covering the PMLN for a long time, said that as the leading party of the PDM, the decisions of that government hung heavy around the Sharif brothers’ necks.

“The 16-month rule of PDM caused almost irreversible damage to the PMLN. The tenure saw massive inflation, hitting the public everywhere, including their own vote bank,” Ghani told Al Jazeera. “Theirs is a party of development and the economy; people support them for delivery, not for ideology. That perception was destroyed in that time.”

Pakistan was on the verge of defaulting on loans last year, with its foreign reserves depleting to less than $4 billion dollars, and its rupee depreciating rapidly against the US dollar. A $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund helped stave off a default temporarily.

Sharif returned home from his exile three months before the elections. Many analysts believe that Sharif’s return and the subsequent change in his legal fortunes — with convictions against him dropped and restrictions against contesting elections removed — were made possible only because the military had decided to back him in the 2024 vote.

Meanwhile, Khan has been charged in more than 100 cases; was jailed in August and barred from contesting in the elections; and was sentenced in three separate cases just the week before the February 8 polls.

His party faced a crackdown — senior party officials were arrested, many were apparently coerced to leave his movement, and the PTI was barred from even using its election symbol, the cricket bat, in the elections. Its candidates were forced to contest as independents.

But the PTI wasn’t the only party that suffered. The PMLN and the military, seen by many ordinary Pakistanis as being behind the crackdown, made the mistake of underestimate popular support for Khan, said Ghani.

“When a person is oppressed, their support increases massively. We saw that in the case of Nawaz Sharif himself. Those who are pushed against the wall, they are the ones to retaliate the most. PMLN did not understand this,” he added.

Alam, the Lahore-based analyst agreed.

“Not even once did they [the PMLN] condemn the violence and persecution of the PTI; in fact, they played their part in fully subjugating them. This made PMLN a victimiser, resulting in public anger against them,” he said.

A party leader acknowledged that the PMLN had been blindsided by the recent election results.

“PMLN is on the defensive; Nawaz Sharif is on the defensive,” he told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

The insider also blamed “sycophants” within the party, whom he accused on focusing on their own interests, for the PMLN’s failure to adapt its messaging as public opinion started to swing against it.

“Nawaz Sharif used to be very adept at handling media himself, but now that isn’t the case,” he said.

While the PMLN supremo, in his speech on Friday, did name other parties the PMLN might seek alliances with to form a government, he did not mention the PTI.

Alam said that PMLN and Nawaz Sharif must show some “grace”.

“PMLN came in as a party that was a government-in-waiting. PTI and Khan were in survival mode, but they upset the predictions. The country is in crisis, and it is imperative for Sharif, if he thinks he is a statesman, to concede and ask PTI to form a government,” Alam said.

Lahore-based Ghani said that the election risked compounding the country’s political, economic, and security challenges.

“Countries, when they hold elections, their objective is to bring stability. Democracy functions when it holds elections, and a mandate is earned. In our country, the election result is causing further instability,” he added.

Ghani said that Sharif, in his Friday speech, ought to have acknowledged the support of voters for Khan and the PTI, and indicated a willingness to “reach out to them”.

But what about the party’s own support base and future? It’s not looking very good for the PMLN, said Nizami, the analyst.

“Their strength and hegemony were in central Punjab area, from where they used to sweep the number of seats. It was unthinkable for them to lose votes. Yet, they have been losing ground to PTI and are unable to stop the rot,” he said.

“They have much to ponder now.”

Link

India-Pakistan

Disappointing electoral performance prompts resignations of JI's Haq, IPP's Tareen

2024-02-13

[GEO.TV] After facing setbacks in the February 8 general elections as both the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami failed to show any electoral progress, IPP's Patron-in-Chief Jahangir Tareen and JI's Emir Sirajul Haq announced resigning from the party offices on Monday.

Subsequently, Pervez Khattak — the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-Parliamentarians (PTI-P) chief and former aide of PTI founder Imran Khan — also announced "taking a break from politics" after the election setback.

Tareen, an influential politician who was once a close aide of incarcerated former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, has faced humiliation in the nationwide February 8 general elections as his newly-formed party grabbed only two National Assembly (NA) and one provincial assembly seats.

Citing poor electoral performance, the IPP founder announced quitting politics and his party position in a post on X.

“I would like to thank everyone who supported me in this election and want to offer my congratulations to my opponents. I have immense respect for the will of the people of Pakistan. Therefore, I have decided to resign from my position as Chairman IPP and step away from politics altogether,” the senior politician wrote on his official X handle.

“My gratitude to all the members of IPP. I wish them the absolute best. By the Grace of Allah, I will continue to serve my country to the best of my ability in a private capacity. May the next few years see Pakistan prosper IA. Pakistan Zindabad,” he added.

In another development on the political landscape today, the chief of the politico-religious party, Sirajul Haq tendered his resignation citing “failures to get the targeted electoral results.”

The Siraj-led party failed to win a single NA seat, however, it grabbed five provincial seats.

Qaiser Sharif, JI’s Central Secretary Information of, confirmed the development regarding the party chief’s resignation which he tendered after taking responsibility for disappointing electoral performance in the general polls.

Sharif said that JI’s Secretary General Ameerul Azeem summoned an emergency session of the central shura on February 17 at the party’s headquarters — Mansoora Lahore. “The central shura’s session will commence at 10am and mull over the situation [post-resignation of the JI emir].”

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India-Pakistan

PTI looks towards COAS Gen Munir for leaders' release, mandate acceptance

2024-02-12

[GEO.TV] Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) top leader Barrister Gohar Khan Sunday demanded the release of the party's "political prisoners," including founder Imran Khan, in reaction to Chief of the Army Staff General Asim Munir's "healing touch" statement on general elections.

Congratulating the nation over the conduct of the February 8 polls, the army chief, on Saturday, said the nation needed stable hands and a healing touch to move on from the politics of anarchy and polarisation.

Gen Munir had said that Pakistan’s diverse polity and pluralism would be well-represented by a unified government of all democratic forces imbibed with national purpose.

According to the military's media wing, the COAS had said the nation needs stable hands and a healing touch to move on from the politics of anarchy and polarisation, which does not suit a progressive country of 250 million people. “Elections are not a zero-sum competition of winning and losing but an exercise to determine the mandate of the people.”

Responding to Gen Munir's statement, Barrister Gohar said "healing touch" means there should be no political prisoners in the country.

This comment by the politician, who also represents Khan in his legal battles, came during an interview with Arab News, setting the tone for the party's future moves as its candidates lead in the polls.

"[PTI] mandate has to be respected. Short of it there can be no healing touch.”

Gohar, while responding to the COAS's "unified government" stance, added that it does not necessarily mean a coalition government.

"United government means that every party should be united in one thing, which is that you have to respect and regard people’s mandate first,” he said.

The politician, who won the general elections from the NA-10 constituency, added: "The people have spoken [through the vote] and for the first time they have spoken in a very tough situation [amid a crackdown against PTI]."

In the interview, the PTI chairman said that 95 out of the 102 total independent candidates were backed by the party and remained its loyalists. The PTI will also contest the results in "at least 50 seats" where it considers the results have been manipulated.

The lawyer-cum-politician maintained his party is "near victory in Punjab" and has "two-thirds majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa".

"We are actually close to the final figure in the Centre. We would be hopefully forming the government in the Center, as well as Punjab and the KP," he added.

Gohar, like several other politicians, also complained about the delay in the release of results by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), even two days after the end of the polling process.

"We are giving time to the Election Commission [of Pakistan] to announce all the results by 12 [am] tonight [Sunday],” he warned.

"If they do not, then we are going to hold a peaceful protest in front of the RO [Returning Officer] offices in all those areas where elections [results] have not been announced or elections [results] have been withheld," Gohar added,

Stating that the nation has decided in favour of the PTI, the politician also hinted at the possible release of the party's founder in the coming days.

"I think we will go to the high court, these convictions [against Khan] would be set aside and he will be out soon," said Gohar.

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India-Pakistan

Vote counting in Pakistan hit by unexpected delays after millions cast their ballot in controversial general election

2024-02-11

[CNN] Vote counting in Pakistan’s general election has been hit by unexpected delays after millions cast their ballot in a race in which old dynasties are vying for power while the country’s widely popular former leader languishes behind bars.

There had been no final result as of early Friday evening, more than 24 hours after polls closed. Pakistan’s Election Commission on Friday said it had given “instructions to ensure immediate declaration of results.”

With 156 out of the 266 contested seats counted, independent candidates were in the lead with 62 seats. The majority of the independents are affiliated with the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The much-anticipated vote, already delayed for months, comes as the country of 220 million faces mounting challenges – from economic uncertainty and frequent militant attacks, to climate catastrophes that are putting its most vulnerable at risk.

Police in Pakistan’s capital announced a ban on gatherings as vote counting continued. Islamabad police imposed Section 144 in the city, which prohibits gatherings of more than four people. “Legal action will be taken in case of any disturbance,” the police force wrote in a post on X on Friday.

Khan’s party earlier accused authorities of delaying results in an attempt to rig the vote, accusations they have denied.

“This is the second half of counting & the point when manipulation takes place,” Khan’s PTI said in a statement Thursday, adding it was “clearly leading” in 114 constituencies across the country.

Pakistan’s National Assembly consists of 336 seats, of which 266 are decided through direct voting on polling day.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan described the “lack of transparency” surrounding the delay in announcing the election results as “deeply concerning.”

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India-Pakistan

'Breakthrough' for PML-N as PTI candidate withdraws in favour of Maryam Nawaz

2024-01-22

[GEO.TV] In a "breakthrough" for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ahead of the nationwide polls, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Mehr Muhammad Waseem announced withdrawing in favour of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz from Lahore’s NA-119 on Sunday.
Wonder how much that cost.
The election campaigns of all political parties equipped with mollifying manifestos and promises are in full swing across the country ahead of the February 8 vote. PML-N and PPP are eyeing the premier’s office and desperately swaying voters to elect them to power.

The PTI ticket holder met Maryam and announced to withdraw in her favour besides announcing to join PML-N along with his supporters.

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India-Pakistan

'TTP on agenda' as Fazl gears up for visit to Afghanistan

2024-01-07

[GEO.TV] Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is set to embark on his maiden visit to Afghanistan in nearly 10 years tomorrow (Sunday), sources told Geo News.

The senior politician has banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Pak-Afghan bilateral relationship among other issues on the visit's agenda, the sources said.

Interim Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Sardar Ahmed Jan Shakib on December 16, met the senior politician and invited him to visit Afghanistan. Later, Taliban government's spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Fazl's upcoming visit.

This will be Fazl's first visit since the Taliban takeover of the war-torn country following the United States withdrawal in 2021.

Fazl first visited Afghanistan in 2013 during the government of former president Hamid Karzai.

The sources said that former member of the National Assembly Jamaluddin Mehsood will accompany the JUI-F chief on the trip.

Continuous use of Afghan soil against Pakistan — an issue that Islamabad has time again raised before the Taliban-led Afghan administration — will also be discussed on the visit, sources added.

Speaking on Geo News' programme "Jirga", which will be aired tomorrow, Fazl said that he has the government's mandate for the Afghanistan visit.

"I believe in negotiations but one can move towards a comprehensive strategy only by looking at the ground realities for talks with TTP," Fazl said.

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India-Pakistan

2 terrorists, including ‘high-value target’, killed in Tank operation: ISPR

2024-01-06

[Dawn] Two terrorists, including a “high-value target”, were killed in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank district, the military’s media affairs wing said on Friday.

In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said security forces conducted an operation late last night on the “reported presence of terrorists”.

“After an intense fire exchange, two terrorists, including HVT Gul Yousaf Toor, were sent to hell,” it said.

The ISPR stated that Toor had “remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against security forces, including high-profile terrorist attacks in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts as well as extortion and target killing of innocent civilians”.

“He was highly wanted by the law enforcement agencies and [the] government had fixed head money of Rs2.5 million on him,” the ISPR added.

The military said residents of the area appreciated the security forces’ efforts in “maintaining peace and stability in the area”.

“Security forces of Pakistan, in step with the nation, remain determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country,” the statement concluded.

Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.

In the deadliest attack on security forces in the outgoing year, at least 23 Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred and more than 30 troops wounded on Dec 12 after militants belonging to the Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan stormed a compound used by the military in Dera Ismail Khan’s Daraban area.

According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 — marking a record six-year high.

KP and Balochistan provinces were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84pc of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.

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