Current Projects
Making CPEC Inclusive and Sustainable
The CPEC project has the potential to change the country’s economy. However, viewed in the current global rejection of elite economics, some areas need to be addressed so its impact benefits a broader segment of our society. Ecological: One estimate often heard is that of 7,000 long haul container trucks passing, every day, through ecologically sensitive areas, such as those of Gilgit Baltistan. These will spew an estimated annual 36.5m tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, equal to 25pc of Pakistan’s current overall emissions. Many experts think that unless managed, these emissions will melt the GB glaciers and make the area a high altitude desert, have an adversely affect the locals’ health and disrupt tourist traffic. The trucks will also widely disturb water patterns in the rest of the country and impact agriculture. Containing this problem will require mandating emission control standards and shifting to hybrid and electric power. Doing so will unlock entrepreneurial opportunities as locals can setup micro-hydel stations to service electric vehicles, repowering stations in the GB and KP areas and similar mini solar powered repowering stations in Punjab and Balochistan. Furthermore, factories in the economic zone will add even more CO2 than that emitted by transport vehicles. The country could avail carbon credits, seek foreign assistance, and setup a regional market for trading carbon credits. Employment: The project will account for massive employment in the transportation and logistics sector (potentially more than 50,000 truck drivers). It will also employ many skilled workers in factories. However, it is logical to assume, unless planned otherwise, most of the skilled work will go to the Chinese. They will likely relegate to Pakistan, less exciting employment opportunities of cheap unskilled and part time labour. Operating in Pakistan, unskilled labourers cannot even expect the increment they get in GCC countries. It is imperative that the true value of this...
A Success Story Marred by Ghost Numbers: Afghanistan’s Inconsistent Education Statistics
For years, the Afghan government and donors have cited the growing number of children going to school in Afghanistan as an important post-Taleban success, despite closer scrutiny showing that numbers may have been inflated. The issue came to a head when the newly appointed education minister in the National Unity Government, Asadullah Hanif Balkhi, said that, instead of 11.5 million children being in school, as his predecessor had claimed, there were, in reality, only a little over six million. Education officials scrambled to clarify, defend and adjust the numbers. AAN’s Ali Yawar Adili has been investigating the figures and claims and trying to find out what the actual numbers might be. In the process, he has heard allegations not just of exaggeration, but manipulation, malpractice and mismanagement in the ministry (with input from Jelena Bjelica, Martine van Bijlert and Thomas Ruttig). The re-discovery of ghost schools, and some inflated figures Education Minister Asadullah Hanif Balkhi caused a public furore on 18 December 2016 when, in an interview with Tolo TV, he said that across the country only a little over six million pupils were actually in school. His count contradicted the ones provided by his predecessor under former president Hamed Karzai, Faruq Wardak, who had reported that up to 11.5 million pupils – almost double Balkhi’s number – were attending school. Such high numbers of school attendance had not only served the Afghan government as a marker of post-Taleban success, but also donor governments as proof that their engagement in Afghanistan, though difficult, was still worthwhile. (1) It was not the first time Balkhi had said the education numbers were inflated. Only a month after his appointment, on 27 May 2015, Balkhi testified before the Wolesi Jirga, that, in certain insecure areas, although there were no schools, money was still allocated (and spent), including for teachers’ salaries. He said he believed the ministry’s previous figure of...
“Sports resumption may ease Afghan- Pakistan tensions”
Members of a Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) led Pak-Afghan Track 1.5/11 have welcomed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s invitation to the victors of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) Peshawar Zalmi. Javed Afridi, the PSL owner confirmed to the media that the Afghan president had invited the Zalmis for matches in Kabul mostly probably in May. “This invitation has triggered hopes that cricket may soon become a vehicle to ease tensions and pave way for the resumption of a meaningful and serious dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan shortly,” Pakistani members of the Beyond Boundaries initiative said in a statement. Cricket diplomacy is not new in South Asia as two former Presidents General Ziaul Haque and General Musharraf , too, used it to break the stalemate and initiate dialogue with India. “It seems President Ghani has taken a leaf from history with the expectation that goodwill thus generated at popular level may strengthen his hand to resume political dialogue with Pakistan,” a CRSS statement said, adding that such bilateral inter-action is very much in synch with the recommendations that nine meetings under Beyond Boundaries have produced. Beyond Boundaries, a project undertaken jointly by CRSS and its Afghan counterpart Women, Peace and Security Studies (WPSO). It includes Ms. Shazia Marri MNA, Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Maj. Gen. (retd) Ejaz Awan, Lt. Gen. (retd) Asif Yasin Malik, Ambassador Mian Sanaullah, Ambassador Qazi Humayun, and journalist Muhammad Tahir form the Pakistan side, and Sayed Ishaq Gailani former MP, Mozammil Shinwari former deputy Minister, Wazhma Frogh civil society activist, Palwasha Hassan civil society activist, Ketabullah Khpolwak Sapai TOLO TV, Abdul Hakeem Mujahid head of executive council of the High Peace Council; Elay Ershad MP, Khalid Pastoon MP, Fowzia Koofi MP, and Mr. Sami Mahdi TOLO TV. Under the Beyond Boundaries project’s Karachi visit of Afghan delegation in January 2107, the Chief Minister of Sind had agreed...
Afghan Weekly (Mar 03 – Mar 09, 2017)
Taliban’s political representatives are reported to have visited China last month; an anonymous Taliban source informed Pakistan’s Express Tribune that “The visit was part of the relations of the political office with European countries such as Norway, Germany, France, and Britain as well as neighboring and regional countries. But these relations are focused on bringing about peace in Afghanistan and resolving the issue through negotiations.”[1] The meeting came days after Deng Xijun, China’s special envoy to Afghanistan, met with senior Afghan leaders, including U.S.-backed President Ashraf Ghani in the Afghan capital of Kabul.[2] Meanwhile, Chinese ground troops are reportedly operating inside Afghanistan, conducting joint counter-terror patrols with Afghan forces along a 50-mile stretch of their shared border. This is fueling speculation that Beijing is preparing to play a considerably greater role in the country's security once the U.S. and NATO leave. Political commentators have debated on the reasons behind China’s move to bring troops inside the war-ravaged country. According to Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, border security and broader stability are of prime concerns to China. In the wake of a US drawdown, China’s law enforcement actions inside Afghanistan in cooperation with Pakistan serve Beijing's interests quite well.[3] Strains between Islamabad and Kabul have also continued to persist. This week Pakistan lost five soldiers in a cross-border terrorist attack on three Pakistani border posts along the Pak-Afghan border. Pakistan Army reportedly killed over 15 suspected terrorists in their retaliatory action and injured 20 others, according to a press release issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).[4] Pakistani authorities, however, decided to open up the border for two days, so that the stranded people on both sides could cross over. Resultantly, more than 51,000 Afghans and 4,900 Pakistanis returned to...
North Waziristan: What happened after militants lost the battle?
For over a decade the inaccessible and mountainous tribal area of North Waziristan was home to a swirling array of violent jihadists. The Pakistan and Afghan Taliban movements, al-Qaeda and less well-known militant outfits such as the Haqqani Network used the area to hold hostages, train militants, store weapons and deploy suicide bombers to attack targets in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today the militants have gone. Virtually the whole of North Waziristan is in Pakistani army hands. The army believes the defeat of the militants was one of the most successful anti-jihadist campaigns the world has yet seen. In two years of fighting the army lost 872 men and believes it killed over 2,000 militants. "Before 2014 North Waziristan was a hub of terrorist activities," said General Hassan Azhar Hayat, who commands 30,000 men in North Waziristan. After the army moved in "those who resisted were fought in these areas… the complete agency was cleared". But many militants managed to escape, slipping across the border to eastern Afghanistan to fight another day. Many are now operating there with impunity, some helping the Afghan Taliban in its battle against the government in Kabul while others attack targets in Pakistan. The latest group to establish itself in the area is Islamic State, although the degree of control exercised by Iraq-based Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over his supporters in Afghanistan is unclear. When the jihadists fled North Waziristan they left behind the apparatus that had helped keep their movement in power. Pakistani army officers today jokingly refer to one village, that was home to many senior militant commanders, as the Taliban's Pentagon, and they describe another where militants were trained as the Taliban Sandhurst. As they moved across North Waziristan, the army found prisons, a media centre hidden under a mosque, bomb-proof tunnels and a huge roadside bomb factory. With hundreds of bags of fertiliser and large blue plastic vats filled with foaming...
The Situation in Afghanistan and its Implications for International Peace and Security – Report of the Secretary General (March, 2017)
The present report provides an update on the activities of the United Nations in Afghanistan, including significant humanitarian, development and human rights efforts and was submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 68/11 and Security Council resolution 2274 (2016), in which the Secretary-General is requested to report every three months on developments in Afghanistan. It also provides a summary of key political and security developments and regional and international events relating to Afghanistan. The annex to the report contains an assessment of progress made towards the achievement of benchmarks and indicators in accordance with Security Council resolution 1868 (2009). Relevant Developments The Government continued to face significant political, economic and security challenges. The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, and the Chief Executive, Abdullah Abdullah, continued to engage in bilateral discussions to improve their working relationship. An investigation into the role of the First Vice-President, Abdul Rashid Dostum, in the alleged illegal detention and abuse of a former Governor of Jowzjan Province was launched. Several key government positions remain vacant. The newly formed electoral management bodies took initial steps towards implementing electoral reforms and preparing for future elections. The Government also continued to advance its anti-corruption agenda. In parallel, the implementation of the peace agreement with Hizb-i Islami Gulbuddin advanced, including the lifting of sanctions against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, but there was no discernible progress on peace talks between the Government and the Taliban. There was an increase in multilateral engagement at the regional level. The security situation continued to worsen, with armed clashes between security forces and the Taliban reaching a record high in 2016 and continuing at that pace in 2017. High levels of violence against civilians continued to be recorded as a result, with a...
Over 55,000 Afghans, Pakistanis return home in two days
Over 32,000 Afghans and 2,700 Pakistanis crossed into their respective countries via the Torkham and Chaman crossing points on Wednesday — the last day of reopening of the border with Afghanistan. In two days, over 51,000 Afghans and 4,900 Pakistanis returned to their respective countries after the Pakistan government reopened the border crossings on Tuesday. At Torkham, the Frontier Corps in collaboration with the political administration made elaborate security and immigration arrangements in order to facilitate swift and speedy return of Afghans and also to avoid the Tuesday-like situation when the frustrated people broke security barriers and crushed to death an Afghan woman in their desperation to cross the border. Female FC personnel were also deputed at the border to help guide returning Afghan women and their children. Male personnel were also deployed at a number of locations to regulate the process of immigration of returning Afghans. According to officials, 11,500 Afghans crossed the border on Wednesday and 12,539 on Tuesday. About 700 Pakistanis returned home in two days. Taxis taking the Afghan nationals to the Torkham border were stopped at three points to avoid rush and traffic congestion. Rules about legal travel documents for the returning Afghans were also relaxed and they were allowed to go back even by showing their national identity cards. Same rules were also applied for Pakistanis who got stuck on the Afghan side after the closure of the border on Feb 17. Taxi owners, who had lost their business to the nearly three weeks of border closure, had a field day on Tuesday and Wednesday as they ferried thousands of Afghans from different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas to the Torkham border. The Afghans waiting in long queues at the Torkham crossing expressed mixed feelings about reopening of the border and their return journey. Amanullah of Jalalabad said that though he was happy to go back home after 18 days of painful wait, the...
Women’s Day – Meaningless for Afghan Women
The 8th of March was celebrated as International Women’s Day across the world, but does it matter for Afghan women? The rights of women have been a controversial issue and Afghan women left several regimes behind, including the Taliban’s regime. The political ups and downs throughout the history involved women’s rights and liberty and the patriarchal system left them at the mercy of injustice. They suffered indescribable pains and anguish. Their rights have been violated and their freedoms were curtailed in one way or another. Moreover, Afghan women have been the victim of traditional cultures. Their rights were restricted within the closed frame of traditions being practiced mainly in tribal belts. In other words, the parochial mindsets regarding women played highly negative role across the country through engendering hatred and misogyny. Women’s role was tailored to men’s desires. They were deemed inferior creature and had to be all ears to their spouses’ orders. After all, stereotypes abounded in our literature and our culture concerning women and continue up to now. The Taliban’s regime treated women as a pariah and trampled upon their rights and liberty. It is believed that Afghan women bore the brunt of violence during that regime. Women were not allowed to attend schools or go to bazaar without chaperone. They were flagellated in public places in case of eloping with their favorite men. Their social and political role was denied. With the establishment of democracy in the post-Taliban Afghanistan, Afghan women were entitled to engage in social, cultural and political activities, including being candidate for presidency and provincial council. Constitutionally, “the citizens of Afghanistan, man and woman, have equal rights and duties before the law.” In the meantime, “liberty and human dignity are inviolable. The state shall respect and protect liberty as well as human dignity.” The current Constitution of Afghanistan, which was approved in 2004, is the most...
CPEC Enclaves
A small line in a news story a few days ago caught my eye. The setting was a hearing in the Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development at which high officials from the Planning Commission were answering questions about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The line that caused me to do a double take was this one: “The committee was informed that only Chinese industrialists would be allowed to set up their industries in the proposed economic zones along the corridor.” Surely this was a mistake, I thought, so I called some people, including members of the committee, to ask whether this had indeed been said. They confirmed that, yes, the officials from the Planning Commission had indeed said this. So what’s going on? Under the CPEC umbrella, there are nine Special Economic Zones planned. One each in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Islamabad, two in Sindh and one each in Fata, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Going by the CPEC website, work does not appear to have begun on any of them yet. The relative size of each is also not disclosed, nor are there any details about the special infrastructure requirements for each. The website claims that these are Chinese-financed projects, though it doesn’t tell us what the terms are, whether the financing is concessional or on commercial terms. We also don’t know how the energy and water requirements of these zones will be met. Will there be new transmission and distribution lines, grid stations for electricity, gas pipelines and compressors, water pipelines, and if so, where will the water be sourced from? If gas will be supplied from the grid, what will be the merit order placement of these industries in the gas load curtailment plan? Or will they be required to import their own LNG, in which case what third-party access rules will apply for the transport of that gas from the regasification terminal to the economic zone? We know nothing about the security arrangements inside the zones, and if...
Victims of Narratives
The narratives in Kabul and Islamabad refuse to change; Afghan officials insist Tehreek-e- Taliban Afghanistan (TTA) militants remain ensconced in Pakistani havens in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere. They insist the Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak, many in Kuchlak (Balochistan) that belong to JUI-F clerics continue to serve as support centres to the TTA militants including those from the Haqqani Network. They believe the TTA offers the bedrock of social support to all shades of terrorists including the TTP, Jamaatul Ahrar, ETIM, IMU, Chechens and Daesh. At the Munich security conference in February, President Ashraf Ghani spoke of some 20 terrorist groups currently operating out of Afghanistan. Masoom Stankzai, the head of the mighty National Directorate of Security, talks of some 30 terror groups based in the tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They cannot flourish if they are not tolerated. If there is a will to counter them, how can they operate, he asks, implying that Afghanistan’s enemies operate out of Pakistan? The Afghanistan Times editorial on February 19, for instance, laid in to “Pakistan’s complicity snakes.” “In Afghanistan we are fighting insurgents, while in Pakistan they (militants) are using the country’s passports, airports, hospitals and the army toilets,” wrote the paper. The editorial a day earlier accused Pakistan of backing terrorists that are killing its own people. Such arguments amount to turning logic on its head because they imply that the Pakistani establishment is paying terror groups to blow up Pakistani people and security forces and it is exporting terrorism to Afghanistan. Notwithstanding Pakistan’s baggage of involvement — together with the US and Saudi Arabia — with Afghan mujahideen including Ustad Sayyaf, Prof Rabbani, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Hekmetyar, Haji Qadeer, Mr Karzai — and then support to the Taliban under Mullah Omar, the current Afghan discourse also overlooks the intricacies of geo-politics that...
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.