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Trade Resumes with Kabul After Successful Talks
Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan across the Torkham border resumed on Sunday after border administrations of the two countries held a successful round of talks over new tax measures introduced by Afghan authorities. Cargo traffic remained suspended for three days because of a strike by transporters of both countries against the imposition of ‘land tax’ by the Afghan customs authorities. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the border as the Afghan authorities refused entry to them without paying the newly imposed tax. Pakistani transporters said every vehicle from here was required to pay 5,000 afghanis, while Afghan transporters were charged half the amount upon their entry into Afghanistan. “We have been informed by Afghanistan borders affairs in-charge Qasim Shinwari that the Afghan authority will not charge 5,000 afghanis from Pakistani transporters and have assured that this practice will not take place in the coming months,” Khyber Agency political agent Capt (retd) Khalid Mehmood told The Express Tribune by telephone. “More than two thousand trucks loaded with cement, vegetables, fruits, daily-use and other items were stranded on the border at Torkham in protest because the additional entry tax levied by Afghanistan was unbearable for them,” Khyber Transport Association’s president Shakir Afridi told The Express Tribune. Afghan authorities at Torkham in Fata and Chaman in Balochistan were charging 5,000 afghanis that comes to more than Rs5,000. However, Pakistan did not impose any taxes on the movement of cargo trucks as a goodwill gesture, Afridi said. “The tax measure was allegedly aimed at crippling trade between the two countries. It seems the decision was taken by government of Qandahar and the Afghan border authorities without taking the approval of the central government in Kabul,” he said. Afridi added that the governments in Islamabad and Kabul had decided in the 2011 Islamabad Declaration that no tax would be levied at border...
Framing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: A Geo-Strategic Perspective
(Special Contribution to CRSS) Abstract Being neighbor and close friends, both China and Pakistan continues to weave a mutually beneficial and lasting friendship. Close cooperation between the two states ranges from economic to security and culture. Yet the emerging geo-political and geo-strategic realities have put both the states in a closer and mutually cooperative settings. The most salient evidence of this reality is the conceiving and construction of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in recent years. In this backdrop, this study seeks to analyse the CPEC with special focus on the new challenges arising out of new geostrategic scenarios in the region and extra-region. One of the most serious observation of this study is that CPEC is confronted with growing complexities of ground realities, particularly conflicting desires and roles of major players in the region. Introduction CPEC was launched in the backdrop of 9/11, wherein after an initial reign of geo-politics, geo-economics is taking root in the international arena. Claimed as a game-changer move in the region, the Corridor was officially unveiled by the Chinese leadership led by Xi Jinping in 2013, when he was paying an official visit to Pakistan. The Corridor has emerged as a pivotal component of the now famous “One Belt One Road Initiative “(OBOR) in the region and Asia at large. The Initiative took shape within two years after Chinese new leadership took office. But as a matter of fact, the Initiative underwent a series of strategic thinking and designing, before it was finally composed. In 2012, when China convened the most historical event—18th Party Congress, Beijing’s new leadership felt a compelling need to frame and shape China’s brand-new reform agendas and diplomacy. The responsibility thus shifted to China’s top scholars, intellectuals and politicians to help shape policies and to find the right answers to how China should promote her stability at home, as well as national interests...
Police Order 2016 Made KP Police Ever More Accountable and Transparent, RPO Mardan
The new police order 2016 is a serious attempt to establish accountability mechanism and operational autonomy of KP police. The recruitment process of KP police is ever more transparent - with NTS at the core of it - and can no longer be influenced. The promotion system in police has also been revised; linking with departmental exam through (NTS & ETEA) and performance. The system is so efficient that a soldier of lowest rank can go up to the rank of DSP and can even retire as DIG – subject to exams, training and performance. The training of KP police is at the core of police reforms. In this regard, nine training schools have been established to improve its capacity to deal with terrorism, crimes and injustices in the society. These were the remarks made by Mr. Ijaz Ahmad, DIG/ RPO Mardan during a public forum on police reforms at Press Club, Mardan. Mr. Faisal Shehzad, DPO Mardan and Mr. Mushtaq Seemab, Tehsil Naib Nazim, Mardan also spoke on the occasion. The event was participated well by the senior police officers and members of community with diverse backgrounds including lawyers, local government representatives, media, academia and youth representatives. The forum was part of the project “Ulasi Police” an awareness and advocacy campaign undertaken by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) – as part of USAID Small Grants and Ambassadors’ Fund Program – to strengthen the rule of law in KP province by promoting and disseminating the significant police reforms aimed at incorporating local communities’ policing needs and international human rights standards. The endeavor aims to tackle the trust deficit between the public and police, help KP police become an accountable and community-focused police force. “The police officers are now answerable to the public and their representatives, whereas the DPO will report to the district council twice a year”, the RPO Mardan spoke on the accountability mechanism devised as part of KP police...
Saudi Arabia and Iran Face off in Afghanistan: The Threat of a Proxy War
Saudi Arabia and Iran’s ongoing proxy war in the Middle East is never far from the headlines. The two countries have sparked or exacerbated various conflicts throughout the region, including in Syria and Yemen, two of the most complex and devastating wars in recent history. But another battle between the two regional powerhouses has gone relatively unnoticed, even though it could further destabilize a key strategic theater for the West: Afghanistan. Since entering Afghanistan nearly 15 years ago, NATO has committed thousands of troops and billions of dollars to the country. Today, 13,000 NATO troops remain there, and this summer, NATO committed to continue funding Afghan forces until 2020. But despite all these efforts, Afghanistan remains highly volatile, with a weak central government and various insurgency groups that maintain considerable influence in the country. Many of these groups have a long history of working with Tehran or Riyadh and sometimes both. Although both capitals fund Islamic centers and various groups in Afghanistan, their respective strategies for the region diverge considerably. Iran sees Afghanistan as a primary zone of influence, much as it sees Iraq. The two countries share a porous border, as well as cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and economic ties. Iran is also home to a large number of Afghan refugees, and increased instability and insecurity there translate into even more. Further, narcotics trafficking from Afghanistan fuels Iran’s epidemic of drug abuse. For these reasons, Tehran was already present in Afghanistan when the United States and its NATO allies intervened in 2001. At the time, Iran saw the NATO war as an opportunity and worked with Washington and its partners to defeat the Taliban and stabilize the country. Tehran also leveraged its influence to help build a new national government in Kabul and donated hundreds of millions in aid. Iran has often been a helpful force in Afghanistan, unlike in other similar conflicts...
Russia Frustrates Indian Efforts to Isolate Pakistan
India’s former ally, Russia has declined to support India on its fake surgical strike in Kashmir as the Russian government has disowned its ambassador in New Delhi who in a statement of last week supported India on so-called surgical strikes against Pakistan across the LoC in Kashmir. With this India has failed in obtain a pat on its back for escalation against Pakistan from any important world capital, including permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P-5). Special Assistant to Prime Minister Syed Tariq Fatemi has confirmed that Russian government has intimated Pakistan about its position on the Indian claims of surgical strikes and distained from the assertions made by its envoy in New Delhi Alexander Kadakin who in an undue haste issued a statement supporting Indian position. Highly placed diplomatic sources told The News here Sunday that Pakistan agitated with Kremlin about the remarks of its ambassador in the Indian capital. Russia while responding to Pakistan has made it absolutely clear that the statement of its ambassador in New Delhi doesn’t commensurate with the Russian position on the subject and it disapproved the observations of Ambassador Alexander Kadakin. It is understood that the ambassador who is serving in New Delhi since 2009 would be reprimanded on this count. Alexander Kadakin welcomed Indian so-called raids on terrorist launch-pads across the LoC. Kadakin said the military exercise with Pakistan was in fact intended to encourage that country not to target its neighbour. “India should not be concerned about military exercises between Russia and Pakistan because the theme of the exercise is anti-terror fighting. That’s in India’s interests that we teach Pakistani Army not to use itself for terror attacks against India. We welcome the surgical strike. Every country has right to defend itself,” Kadakin was quoted as having told an Indian news channel. Russia had raised some concern in Delhi with its anti-terror exercise...
Sri Lanka Cricket Team Attack Mastermind 'Killed' In Afghanistan
Qari Ajmal — a leading Pakistani militant leader wanted for organising the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has been ‘killed’ in eastern Afghanistan, sources close to militants revealed on Sunday. The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team claimed the lives of seven police officials and left seven players including Mahela Jayawaredene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera, Tharanga Paranavitana and Chaminda Vaas injured. Ajmal, a leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangi (LeJ), had fled to Waziristan after the attack and was associated with Hakimullah Mehsood, the chief of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who was killed in November 2013, tribal sources said. He later fled to Afghanistan like many other Pakistani militants and had been living with Mehsud Taliban in the Afghan province of Paktika, which borders Pakistan. Sources close to the militants told The Express Tribune that Qari Ajmal was killed in a joint operation by foreign and Afghan troops in Aurgon area of Paktika. Ajmal is the second senior Pakistani militant commander to have been killed in Afghanistan in nearly two weeks. The US-led Nato and Afghan forces killed leading Pakistani Taliban commander Azam Tariq and his son in Paktika earlier on September 25. Separately, Omar Mansoor alias Naray, the mastermind of the brutal Army Public School (APS) attack that killed nearly 140 students and staff members in Peshawar, was killed in a US drone strike in eastern Nangarhar province, which also borders Pakistan. Tribal sources say that the foreign and Afghan forces also arrested Naseer Waeer, a senior Taliban commander of Hakikmullah group during the operation in Paktika. Most Taliban relocated to Paktika from Waziristan as a result of ongoing military operations, according to security forces. In August, three suspected terrorists, who were allegedly involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan team, were killed in a police encounter in Lahore’s Manawan area....
Sri Lanka Cricket Team Attack Mastermind ‘Killed’ In Afghanistan
Qari Ajmal — a leading Pakistani militant leader wanted for organising the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has been ‘killed’ in eastern Afghanistan, sources close to militants revealed on Sunday. The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team claimed the lives of seven police officials and left seven players including Mahela Jayawaredene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera, Tharanga Paranavitana and Chaminda Vaas injured. Ajmal, a leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangi (LeJ), had fled to Waziristan after the attack and was associated with Hakimullah Mehsood, the chief of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who was killed in November 2013, tribal sources said. He later fled to Afghanistan like many other Pakistani militants and had been living with Mehsud Taliban in the Afghan province of Paktika, which borders Pakistan. Sources close to the militants told The Express Tribune that Qari Ajmal was killed in a joint operation by foreign and Afghan troops in Aurgon area of Paktika. Ajmal is the second senior Pakistani militant commander to have been killed in Afghanistan in nearly two weeks. The US-led Nato and Afghan forces killed leading Pakistani Taliban commander Azam Tariq and his son in Paktika earlier on September 25. Separately, Omar Mansoor alias Naray, the mastermind of the brutal Army Public School (APS) attack that killed nearly 140 students and staff members in Peshawar, was killed in a US drone strike in eastern Nangarhar province, which also borders Pakistan. Tribal sources say that the foreign and Afghan forces also arrested Naseer Waeer, a senior Taliban commander of Hakikmullah group during the operation in Paktika. Most Taliban relocated to Paktika from Waziristan as a result of ongoing military operations, according to security forces. In August, three suspected terrorists, who were allegedly involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan team, were killed in a police encounter in Lahore’s Manawan area....
Address The ‘New Normal’ In Kashmir
Generals are, perhaps, not the only ones who fight today’s battles based on the ideas, tactics and lessons derived from previous wars. As Jammu and Kashmir confronts one of its gravest crises, a similar syndrome is playing out in Delhi and Srinagar. All shades of political leaders, strategic analysts, intelligence professionals, and almost everyone else seem to have reached a common conclusion that Kashmir’s present troubles are due solely to Pakistan and India’s mismanagement of the situation. History will not, however, spare those who do not make a distinction between current realities and past situations. Right since Independence, Kashmir has been a contentious issue between India and Pakistan. Keeping a wary eye on Pakistan’s activities in Kashmir has been an important charge on the country’s intelligence and security services. Three unsuccessful wars and numerous failed terror attacks have not deflected Pakistan from continuing along this path. This article originally appeared on www.thehindu.com, October 10, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
Editorial: Pakistan’s Insanity
Extreme brutalities committed by Pakistan in the region are getting attention of the international community. The world cannot ignore for long the atrocities committed by Pakistani military. The systematic genocide of Pashtuns and Baloch people is also making news headlines on regular basis. Key international players have also realized that it is Islamabad’s strategic depth policy which is threatening the regional peace and destabilized Afghanistan. As Pakistan has become a headache for the regional and international community, the country is trying to introduce a new play to divert attention of key international actors from the terrorist sanctuaries on its soil. The first scene of the play has been unveiled by Pakistan Prime Minister’s special envoy on Kashmir, Mushahid Hussain, who said in Washington that peace in Afghanistan is linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue. The statement proves that Pakistan has utterly failed in its attempts to establish regional hegemony by supporting notorious terrorist organizations. The statement also shows Pakistan’s insanity and dual policy. Peace in Afghanistan is not linked with Kashmir because the former has nothing to do with the latter. However, there is something common between the two. Pakistan is using her largest force of mercenaries to attack civilians and military installations in both Afghanistan and Kashmir. Pakistan has zero tolerance for peace and stability in the region that’s why all of her policies are revolving around use of terrorism as a mean to achieve the ends, especially in Afghanistan. The state that was engineered by the British Empire to leave its legacy behind is under fire for unprecedented human rights violations and aggressive military adventurism. The British Empire was doing the same. Pakistan is not only suppressing the freedom movements in Balochistan and Pashtun belts through use of brutal force but also using the mercenaries—terrorists—to alter policies of the neighboring countries....
Exclusive: Afghan Taliban Leader Taught, Preached In Pakistan, Despite Government Vow To Crack Down
For 15 years until his sudden disappearance in May, the new leader of the Afghan Taliban insurgency openly taught and preached at the Al Haaj mosque in a dusty town in southwestern Pakistan, associates and students told Reuters. Details of Haibatullah Akhundzada's life in Kuchlak, near the city of Quetta, have not previously been reported, and could put further pressure on Pakistan to do more to crack down on militants openly living there. The row over how far Islamabad will go to get rid of jihadi fighters and leaders has hurt relations between Pakistan and Washington, in part because nearly 10,000 American soldiers are in Afghanistansupporting the war against insurgents. A spokesman for the U.S. State Department's South Asia bureau said it was not "not in a position to confirm Haibatullah Akhundzada's whereabouts, past or present." Akhundzada is now believed to be in hiding after crossing the long and porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but not before going untouched in Kuchlak, located in Baluchistan province, as he rose up the ranks of the Afghan Taliban. He was promoted to "emir" in May after a U.S. drone killed his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in another part of Pakistan, a strike that infuriated Islamabad but reflected growing impatience over what Washington sees as ambivalence toward its enemies. Five years earlier, U.S. forces stormed a compound near the Pakistani capital and killed al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden. "Once he became Emir, he left with his whole family," said Hafiz Abdul Majeed, who runs the Al Haaj mosque, adding that he himself studied for several years under Akhundzada. "You can't teach religion and run (the Taliban's) government at the same time. And it would of course have been dangerous for us and the students and the mosque if he remained here." Pakistan says it does all it can to go after militants. The Interior Ministry did not reply to written questions about Akhundzada's time in Kuchlak. A military...
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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.