Former foreign secretary Salman Bashir said on Thursday that Pakistan did not have any option for strategic partnership, except China, and now it was looking towards Russia too. Speaking at roundtable titled “Troubled Neighbourhood: Pakistan’s Options” organised by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), he said that Pakistan’s civil service structure had collapsed. Indian bureaucracy was working efficiently, but Pakistan’s top bureaucrats had rotten. Pakistani politicians have not even thought about this issue, he said. About the Kashmir issue, Bashir said that Pakistani politicians and Foreign Office were talking the same old things. He said that Pakistan should highlight the human rights violations and the use of pellet guns by the Indian security forces in the Indian-Occupied Kashmir. This is a violation of Geneva Conventions as well. “Pakistan has been unable to unlock geo-economics because it has acted as a security state, but that is true for India as well. They keep spending enormous amounts on defence,” he said. “We as Pakistanis have done a lot, suffered a lot. Pakistan has tried to match external expectations, but it’s time to get out of that schoolboy mindset and be on our own,” he added. Dr Moeed Yusuf, associate vice president at the Asia Centre, earlier said that strategic location had only brought conflict to Pakistan. He said that Pakistan had done only a few things to broaden its alliances. It did a fantastic job to strike a balance in relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia. He said that Pakistan did feel wronged and worried about the world tilting in favour of India. He said that information revolution had made the soft power much more important than ever. He said that Pakistan’s image remained smeared by negative things despite being a front-line ally of the United States. He said that Pakistan’s policy was reactive. He said that India was far better than Pakistan in terms of narrative, geo-economics, realpolitik, and substitute...

  CRSS report says target killings have decreased from 110 per month last year to 48 a month this year Karachi. Amid a tug of war between the security establishment and the Sindh government over the jurisdiction and policing powers of the Rangers, a recent quarterly report of an Islamabad-based security think tank shows a marked improvement in law and order in Karachi due to the ongoing Rangers-led operation against criminals in the city. The report, prepared by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), also states that there has been a significant improvement in the security situation in the entire country. “Although the military operation [in tribal areas] is nearing conclusion, the operation in Karachi continues and may be further extended because of high-profile incidents of violence in the city,” says Muhammad Nafees, a Karachi-based security analyst who compiled the report. Launched in September 2013, the Karachi operation represents yet another dimension of the security crisis that Pakistan faces. “In Karachi, there is a significant decrease in targeted killings on the basis of ethnicity, sect and political affiliation. But proscribed militant outfits have still been carrying out selected attacks, targeting soft targets, such as police personnel deputed to protect anti-polio medics and security officials,” Nafees says while talking to The News. Security situation in country It is stated in the report that deaths from violence in Pakistan during the second quarter [April-June] of 2016 were slightly lower than the deaths recorded during the previous quarter. A total of 788 casualties of violence (545 dead and 243 injured) occurred during that quarter. The overall figure shows that the Fata and Sindh regions, for the first time in the last three years, recorded a lower number of fatalities than Balochistan. On the district level, Karachi recorded the highest number of fatalities from violence with 332 deaths during the second quarter, while...

  CRSS report says target killings have decreased from 110 per month last year to 48 a month this year Karachi. Amid a tug of war between the security establishment and the Sindh government over the jurisdiction and policing powers of the Rangers, a recent quarterly report of an Islamabad-based security think tank shows a marked improvement in law and order in Karachi due to the ongoing Rangers-led operation against criminals in the city. The report, prepared by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), also states that there has been a significant improvement in the security situation in the entire country. “Although the military operation [in tribal areas] is nearing conclusion, the operation in Karachi continues and may be further extended because of high-profile incidents of violence in the city,” says Muhammad Nafees, a Karachi-based security analyst who compiled the report. Launched in September 2013, the Karachi operation represents yet another dimension of the security crisis that Pakistan faces. “In Karachi, there is a significant decrease in targeted killings on the basis of ethnicity, sect and political affiliation. But proscribed militant outfits have still been carrying out selected attacks, targeting soft targets, such as police personnel deputed to protect anti-polio medics and security officials,” Nafees says while talking to The News. Security situation in country It is stated in the report that deaths from violence in Pakistan during the second quarter [April-June] of 2016 were slightly lower than the deaths recorded during the previous quarter. A total of 788 casualties of violence (545 dead and 243 injured) occurred during that quarter. The overall figure shows that the Fata and Sindh regions, for the first time in the last three years, recorded a lower number of fatalities than Balochistan. On the district level, Karachi recorded the highest number of fatalities from violence with 332 deaths during the second quarter, while...

  A report launched by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) claims that violence-related casualties have declined by 40pc in the second quarter of this year, as compared to the first quarter. As many as 788 casualties – 545 fatalities and 243 injuries – were recorded between April 1 and June 30. No incidents of violence-related fatalities were reported from Islamabad, Azad Kashmir or Gilgit-Baltistan. The head of the CRSS, Imtiaz Gul, told Dawn the improvement shows that due to pre-emptive intelligence gathering, groups involved in terrorism are not able to reorganise. “Intelligence has been able to break the chain of command of major terrorist groups as we have been frequently hearing that the groups and members belonging to different terrorist organizations have been arrested,” he said. 10pc fall in violence-related fatalities in Balochistan, 75pc reduction in fatalities in Fata, think tank report finds “Army has done the job of fire-fighting and now civil law enforcement agencies should come forward to play their role. So all the responsibility lies on the shoulders of civil law enforcement agencies,” he added. In response to a question, Mr Gul explained that what he meant by civilian law enforcement was the implementation of existing legislation. “Hate speech need to be stopped, there is need to take action against the illegal use of loud speakers, and materials which have been creating differences between different segments of society should be removed from the curriculum,” he said. The report finds that 269 militants were killed in the aforementioned period, as well 270 non-combatants, including security officials and 172 civilians. Of the 72 security officials who died during this quarter, 46 were police officials, which count for over 60pc of the total fatalities of security officials in this period. Balochistan saw a marginal decrease in violence-related causalities, and a nearly 10pc reduction – from 181 to 166 – in fatalities....