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Pakistan an Exemplary Host To Afghan Refugees, Says UNHCR Rep
More than 200,000 Afghan refugees have been repatriated from Pakistan this year, the UN High Commissioner said on Tuesday. Nearly half of those Afghan men, women and children left in the month of September alone, the highest number since the US toppled the Taliban in 2002. The outflow of refugees returning to the war-torn country comes after the government tightened its border controls in June and began cracking down on undocumented Afghans. The vast majority — more than 185,000 — returned after July, with nearly 98,000 crossing the border in September alone, UNHCR spokesman Qaisar Khan Afridi told AFP. “From January until today, the number of refugees voluntarily repatriating to Afghanistan has crossed the figure of 200,000,” Afridi said. More and more appear to be going every day, with officials saying that the first four days of October saw up to 5,000 returnees daily. An Amnesty International report on Tuesday said Pakistan hosted 1.6 million refugees, making it the third largest refugee hosting nation in the world. But UNHCR said the figure, based on its own data, was already out of date and should be revised to 1.4 million after the movement since July. The agency also estimates that a further one million undocumented refugees are in Pakistan. Meanwhile, UNHCR Representative in Pakistan Indrika Ratwatte said that Pakistan and Iran have been exemplary host of Afghan refugees for the last 37 years. In an exclusive interview with IRNA, he said that at a time when many countries were closing doors on refugees Iran and Pakistan were still hosting millions of Afghan refugees and the hospitality was commendable. Ratwatte said that there were three UNHCR refugee repatriation centres in Pakistan; two in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and one in Balochistan (almost near Afghanistan border) and these days, almost 5,000 Afghan refugees were leaving Pakistan for their homeland ‘per day’. “According to International Organisation of Migrants so far 160,000 undocumented Afghan have...
Pakistan Wants Peace in Afghanistan to Bring Stability In Region: Envoy
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Syed Abrar Hussain said on Sunday that Pakistan wants lasting peace in Afghanistan to bring stability in the region. In an interview, the envoy said that Pakistan wants to strengthen the cooperative and good neighbourly relations with Afghanistan based on the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. Hussain, while responding to the statement of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said Pakistan and Afghanistan are two brotherly countries. He said Pakistan is spending millions of dollars on welfare projects in Afghanistan in education, health and infrastructure. “Pakistan is establishing an engineering university in Balkh, a school in Kabul, a 200-bed hospital in Helmand, kidney center in Jalalabad and a hospital in Lugar,” Hussain said adding that 3,000 Afghan students have been granted scholarships and around 7,000 Afghan students are studying in Pakistan besides 0.5 million children of Afghan refugees. This article originally appeared on www.newspakistan.tv. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
Karzai Reluctant to Endorse Pakistan as ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’
The former Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared reluctant to endorse the move to label Pakistan as ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’ as he considered the goodwill of Pakistani people towards the Afghan people. In an exclusive with Times Now TV, Karzai emphasized on the role of the Pakistani people for hosting millions of Afghan refugees as he was asked if he would support to label Pakistan as ‘State Sponsors of Pakistan’. The former Afghan President said ‘Well, see Pakistan is not only the Pakistani government or the Pakistan military establishment. Pakistan is also the people of Pakistan and nearly 200 million people of Pakistan who are victims of terrorism as much as Afghanistan is India is. So, I wish the people of Pakistan will and I would never want to use a word or an action that would in any manner that would reduce the peace prosperity and the dignity of people of Pakistan.” Karzai further added “But in regard to the establishment of Pakistan and as regard to the military we should do all we can and to bring them to recognizing that there is a different way in behaving with neigbors and that way is a civilized and peaceful relation.” This comes as two powerful American lawmakers introduced an act in the US House of Representatives late last month to designate Pakistan a State Sponsor of terrorism. Congressman Ted Poe, who is Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, said “It is time we stopped paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is: a state sponsor of terrorism.” The act, Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation’ (HR 6069) has been introduced by Republican Poe along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of the Democratic Party, who is Ranking member of this influential Congressional Committee on terrorism. Poe further added “Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the US for years.” “From harboring Osama bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network,...
Kabul Wins Aid Pledges at Brussels Talks
World powers pledged billions of dollars for war-ravaged Afghanistan until 2020 at talks in Brussels on Wednesday amid fresh calls for the Taliban to make peace 15 years after they were driven from power. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met officials from more than 70 countries and international groups, including US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, at the conference. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced that the 28-nation bloc would pledge 1.2 billion euros ($1.5bn) a year and said, “I would expect similar levels of engagement from our partners.” She said there would not be “any donor fatigue on Afghanistan”. Pakistan will provide $500m to Afghanistan for economic development projects, says Aziz Ms Mogherini said that a dinner of key regional players, including China, India and Pakistan, on Tuesday night had “found common ground” for the Afghan peace process. “The European Union will try to facilitate this as much as possible in the coming months.” Pakistan announced a fresh pledge of $500 million for economic development projects in Afghanistan. Addressing the conference, Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz underlined the importance of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan. He said the fresh pledge was in addition to the $500m existing package under which projects in infrastructure, education and health were nearing completion. He pointed out that 3,000 scholarships had been provided to Afghan students for higher education in Pakistan and after completion of this programme Pakistan would provide another 3,000 scholarships in areas of medicine, engineering, banking and other fields to help Afghanistan’s institution building. Mr Kerry urged the Taliban to follow the example of Afghan warlord Gulbadin Hekmatyar and make an “honourable” peace with the Kabul government to end years of violence. Mr Hekmatyar, who heads the Hezb-i-Islami group and was a key figure in Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990s,...
UN: Afghan Opium Production Increases As Eradication Collapses
Opium production in Afghanistan increased this year to one of the highest levels on record as efforts to eradicate the crop in a country that provides much of the world's heroin collapsed, the United Nations said Wednesday. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports annually on opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, and is due to give its yearly update toward the end of this month. "Unfortunately, preliminary results suggest that illicit cultivation has increased well above 200,000 hectares [494,000 acres]," UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said in the text of a speech prepared for delivery to an international conference on Afghanistan in Brussels. That would make it one of the top three years since the UNODC began providing estimates in 1994, according to previous reports by the Vienna-based agency. The greatest area recorded to date was 224,000 hectares in 2014. "The production of opiates is expected to follow the same upward trend,” Fedotov said. "Eradication has been close to zero." Eradication rose 40 percent in 2015, to 3,760 hectares, according to the last UNODC annual opium survey for the country. Fedotov did not give a reason for the increase in production, but his agency's 2015 report said there is a "high correlation" between a poor security situation and poppy cultivation, and the government in Kabul is facing a resurgent Taliban 15 years after U.S. forces helped oust the militants. Taliban successes on the battlefield have exposed the defensive limits of Afghanistan's NATO-trained armed forces, which are supposed to number 350,000 personnel but which have been heavily depleted by casualties and desertion. "Clearly we cannot afford to see international community engagement in Afghanistan weaken," Fedotov told the conference, at which world powers raised $15 billion to fund the country over the next four years. This article originally appeared on www.voanews.com, October 05, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views...
Pakistan’s Near-Abroad
We are so near in so many ways – sharing history, geographical proximity, faith, culture, commercial and family relations for centuries. Such favourable foundations, however, have not been converted by us into close friendly relations with the Central Asian States for our mutual benefit. Even as Europe and the US have been pivoting towards Asia, and as the centre of gravity of the world economy is shifting there, several countries – including Asian nations – have been positioning themselves in this resource-rich region through economic, political and security arrangements. It was Russian strategists who coined the term ‘near-abroad’ after the fall of the Soviet Union to emphasise their closeness with Central Asian and other republics of the former USSR, even as they became separate, sovereign and independent states. And China has rapidly built a range of economic relations spanning trade, energy and transport and communication networks including the ‘One Road, One Belt’ strategy, increasing connectivity with Central Asia and onwards through Iran and Turkey into Europe. And here we are in Asia and even strategically situated as a gateway to Central Asia, but stuck in the one-track westward outlook left behind by colonial rulers at the time of independence; we cannot seem to find our way forward into this resource rich heartland of Asia. It is important to remember that Pakistan was among the first countries visited by the leadership of the newly independent Central Asian countries in 1992 soon after USSR was dissolved in 1991. This was an exceptionally unique opportunity that had opened up after 200 years of Tsarist Russia and USSR rule over these lands. It was fortunate for Pakistan to have been so chosen but unfortunate that it was hostage to a system of governance that lacked the vision to see the promise and potential opened up by this opportunity of the century. It did not invest time and energy into building networks of close cooperation and earn goodwill and...
Pakistan Tensions Loom over India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue
Pakistan may not be officially included in this year's round of talks between India and China, but it's certainly high up on the agenda. The world's number two economy has so far attempted to remain neutral amid the current geopolitical crisis in Kashmir, where New Delhi and Islamabad have revived a decades-old territorial conflict. But as the fourth annual India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) begins in New Delhi on Thursday, Beijing could intervene further. China may lean on India to moderate tensions in the disputed Himalayan region, Nicholas Consonery, senior Asia-Pacific director at advisory firm FTI Consulting, told CNBC's "The Rundown." While Beijing has historically maintained a deeper alliance with Islamabad, the mainland calls itself a close friend to both South Asian nations. In a press conference on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said his country remained a friendly neighbor to both India and Pakistan and called on the two sides to exercise restraint and avoid further tensions. The nuclear-armed rivals exchanged more fire across their de-factor border in Kashmir—known as the Line of Control—on Wednesday, after Indian military officials said they conducted "surgical strikes" inside Pakistan-controlled Kashmir last week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi' sadministration had accused Islamabad of attacking an Indian army base in the conflicted zone last month, but his counterpart Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has denied the claims. The India-China dynamic has certainly become testier than before, C. Raja Mohan, Carnegie India director at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said. There's a sense in New Delhi that China had not been supportive when it cames to India-Pakistan tensions, while China believes Delhi is growing too close to Washington, so it's using Pakistan as leverage, he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia." The geopolitical triangle is further entangled by reports out this week that the Shanghai Stock...
Are We Sure About India?
Chief Minister Narendra Modi has done it. In his typical, inelegant manner, he has raised the curtain on Saarc’s lifeless cadaver. What else could one expect from a man who was in fact considered responsible for the 2002 Gujarat riots that killed over 2000 Muslims and who was blacklisted as persona non grata by the EU and the US? What now remains is Saarc’s final burial and the best locale for the unceremonious event would be the place where it was born 31 years ago. Ironically, Modi’s best partner in this inauspicious event will be none other than his Bangladeshi counterpart who is known for executing those sympathetic to Pakistan. But when it comes to Saarc’s demise, it is India alone that should take the credit. Here I am reminded of an interesting tweet three summers ago from a friend in Kathmandu which said: “Monsoon has arrived in Dhaka, Kathmandu, Delhi and Lahore. Monsoonal unity of South Asia is impressive (and) needs to transfer to geopolitics.” Sitting in Kathmandu, with the Himalayan overview of monsoonal rainbows, one could not have come out with a more romantic theme for resuscitation of the lost South Asian charm and unity. But one must understand why my friend was agonising over this enigmatic region’s unpalatable geopolitics. Home to one-fifth of humanity, South Asia offers so much to the world; yet, it is held back by perennial conflict and poverty. Despite the monsoonal commonality, it remains one of the poorest regions of the world with a vast majority of its peoples still living in grinding poverty and sub-human conditions. Five of the eight Saarc members – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal – belong to the UN’s category of Least Developed Countries or LDCs. With rare exceptions, these countries also lag behind in genuine democratic tradition and good governance. What, after all, is wrong with this region? It is not just poverty and backwardness, it is its geopolitical deformity. Geographically, a structural crack...
Deconstructing Modi Agenda for Afghanistan
President Ashraf Ghani made an unexpected visit to India on the Eves of Eid-ul Adha to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the meeting, Indian Prime Minister pledged an astounding one billion dollar in economic aid to Afghanistan. This tightening ties between the two countries is in a serious of sequences that has begun with President Ghani vision of investing in regional cooperation rather than relying solely on the so called international community. But cozying up to India at such a critical era at the expense of jeopardizing relation with Pakistan is not a wise policy decision. Modi is no messiah and his Agenda for Afghanistan must be critically assessed and cautiously approached. Modi's India is in the mildest of economic progress and the steady growth of incomes to what might be called nationalists patriotic mobilization. Critics of Modi believe that in the last two years since he was elected Prime Minister, his stock of political capital has fallen considerably at home. It is increasingly becoming clear that his hyper-promises in the campaign are no longer attainable, as such an outright looking hawkish foreign policy can serve as a timely scapegoat for Modi and his party. The critics argue that Modi’s India has been revealed to be at a depressing stage on which the demons of religious bigotry and hyper-nationalism hover unsleepingly over the vital debates of a society in transition. In the view of Chandrahas Choudhury, Hindu nationalism, an organized political force is actually the spiritual parent of Bharatiya Janata Party which Modi first joined as a teenager. Hindu nationalism holds that Hinduism is the real unifying thread of the Indian past, and the Hindu way of life should continue to be the motor that stabilizes and drives the present. Being hammered at home by his opponents, Modi tries to gain on his foreign policy, thus, India’s pivot east will redefine regional politics. Narendra Modi is thinking of “Act East” policy, replacing the previous...
EU To Sign Off on 1-Billion-Euro Aid Pledge to Afghanistan
Representatives from 70 countries are set to attend a two-day summit in Brussels to agree on a new aid package for Afghanistan. Ahead of the meeting, the EU sealed a deal to return failed Afghan asylum seekers. The two-day international aid conference in Brussels, which kicks off on Tuesday, is expected to see the EU pledge a total of 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) a year to Afghanistan until 2020. Ahead of the summit, the European Commission said it would commit an extra 200 million euros ($224 million) a year to strengthen state structures in the war-ravaged country. In a statement, the Commission said the funds could be used by the Kabul government "to finance their own strategic development priorities." Dozens of other countries - including the US, Russia, China and India - are also expected to increase their aid commitment to Afghanistan, which is not able to fully support itself after four decades of conflict, and amid a resurgence of the Taliban. As well as seeking a total of 2.68 billion euros a year for the next four years, EU leaders said the meeting would also push for a realistic time frame for a peace process. That fundraising figure is lower because Afghanistan has begun raising its own revenues, but also due to so-called donor fatigue amid multiple high-profile conflicts. Deal to return failed asylum seekers Earlier Monday, the EU sealed a deal with the Afghan government to speed up the deportation of Afghan citizens who do not qualify for asylum in the bloc. Under the plan, the EU will bear the costs of returning the migrants, including travel expenses and re-integration programs, while Kabul has promised to readmit citizens and supply travel documents for migrants without papers within a month. The EU said special cases, such as single women, unaccompanied minors, the old and the sick can only be deported if they have families to return to and their safety can be guaranteed. Germany, which has accommodated more Afghan migrantsthan any other...
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TESTIMONIALS
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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.